(Photo Credit - Anna Webber)
We had the opportunity to interview, a band that is absolutely on fire right now, and for good reason! With a fresh indie sound that blends fantastic melodies and vocals, Castlecomer are poised to be rising stars in the alt world, with their track "Fire Alarm" already reaching over 6,000,000 listens on Spotify! The group hails from Australia, but recently moved to the U.S. in order to pursue their music aspirations full time, and it looks to be going well so far. Their self-titled debut drops October 5th, but they already have music up on Spotify. They will also be one of the headliners for the Sirius XM Alt Nation Tour! So if you're remotely into indie music, you have to check these guys out and read out interview below!
1. How did you come to pursue music and how long have you been at it?
"Alt Revue, howdy doo our old friend?!? I have been playing music with these boys my whole life because we’re all related but we only really classified ourselves as ‘pursuing’ anything when we gigged our asses off in Sydney to save money to get ourselves and our gear over to SXSW in 2017. After that, we realised we needed to relocate from Australia to the USA. We now have no jobs, no savings, no home and live gig to gig in the USA. It’s loose and fast baby but we’re still livin’!"
2. Could you walk us through your process of writing music?
"Bede writes the songs with an acoustic guitar and loop pedal. Then he brings them to rehearsal where the other 4 boys go “that is good” or more often, “that is the opposite of good”. Bede then retreats back to his hole, re-writes the song until it is worthy of the bands praise, and then we take it to the studio. Here everyone adds their own magic and it brings the tune to life."
3. What artists have inspired you in your career?
"Queen of Australia-Sia, Carole King, Kevin Parker, The Roots, Foals, Michael Jackson, The Strokes."
4. Do you have any favorite music gear (guitars, amps, effects pedals, keyboards, etc.) that you love to use? If so, what’s the story on them?
"Tommy our guitarist rolls 12 deep on pedals these days, he is the man to discuss that with, and now our bass player uses a Sans Amp pedal so we don’t have to lug around an Amp, and I use a simple tube screamer on my electric which comes out very rarely, only in gigs when I really wanna rock out! I ditched the guitar a little while ago so I could loosen up my dance moves at the front."
5. Can you describe the vibe at your live shows? Also, what do you enjoy most about a venue when you do a show?
"Our live show is a complete sensory experience – we want every fan that enters those 4 walls to feel energised and excited and happier than when they walked in! We literally give everything we’ve got when we play live because we get so much enjoyment from giving it to the crowd! In terms of what we like about a venue, usually if the sound is good, we’re happy – but if they throw in dinner we’re over the moon"
6. What is one thing that you want the public to know about your music?
"We want people to know that we love playing music and it’s what we care most about. Even if we weren’t in this band, all of us individually would still be playing music somewhere – and that we don’t use track when we play!"
7. Do you have any upcoming projects you would like fans to know about?
"Our Debut Album is our main focus right now – we are throwing everything at that. It’s out in October! The dream then is to perform it in front of as many people as possible."
Answered by Bede
FMI on Castlecomer, check out their website here!
FMI on the Alt Nation Tour visit their here!